1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display area scrolling method capable of two-dimensionally scrolling (moving) a display area displayed on a window.
2. Related Art
In a conventional window system (FIG. 6), when a display object becomes larger than the display area on a window, the display area is displayed on a window having scroll bars for moving the display area.
In order to display, within the display range 22, a display object portion 23 located outside of the display range 22 of the window 21 as shown in, for example, FIG. 6, the display object portion 23 was moved within the display range 22 by dragging a scroll bar 25 or 26 using a pointing device, for example, a cursor 24 of a mouse to scroll the display area, or the display object portion 23 was dragged using a mouse equipped with a special-purpose mechanism for scrolling to move the display area.
Of the conventional scrolling methods, however, the former method is capable of dragging only either a vertical bar 25 or a horizontal bar 26 of the scroll bars, and therefore, the display area could not be moved in any arbitrary direction other than the vertical direction or the horizontal direction by one operation. Also, in order to perform an operation within the display range 22 after moving the display area, it was necessary to move the mouse cursor 24 which has been located at the scroll bar 25 or 26, to a predetermined position within the display range 22.
In the latter method, it is necessary to use a mouse having a special-purpose mechanism for scrolling, and the mouse cursor 26 also moves with the movement of the display area.
More specifically, according to the conventional scrolling method, a desired display object portion 23 appears within the display range 22, and the mouse cursor 24 is at a position apart from the display object portion 23 at the termination of the movement of the display area, and in order to perform an operation by designating the display object portion 23, the mouse cursor 24 had to be moved again.